fly fishing

Stocking Native Rocky Mountain Cutthroat Trout With Planes in Colorado's High Mountain Lakes

Joe_Cermele — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:18:26 -0400

New Pending Record Catches from the IGFA

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 16:05:05 -0400

Take a look at some recent catches currently pending record approval from the International Gamefish Association.

The Jungle Angler's Survival Guide

Joe_Cermele — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:22:03 -0400

The Bolivian jungle is a dorado dream destination, but it's certainly harsh on the angler. Here is Kirk Deeter's list of essential gear for a deep jungle adventure.

Alaska Flyfishing Road Rules

Joe_Cermele — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:59:16 -0400

In August of 2008, Joe Cermele and Mark Wizeman fished across Alaska in a motor home with a budget of $200 a day. The duo hit a different world-class trout and salmon river between Denali and Ninilchik every day and spent less than $2,800 on the entire trip. These are photo outtakes from the adventure and some inside dirt on their travels.

Day-by-day details, plus a map, budget breakdown, and gear checklist you can follow to make the same trip, can be found in the July 2009 issue of Field & Stream in the story "The Alaska Experiment."

The 25 Greatest Flies of All Time

Joe_Cermele — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:56:03 -0400

No one fly catches all the fish all the time. That’s a fact of flyfishing, and it’s why there are thousands of different patterns. Fish, ever whimsical, sometimes refuse to eat on Friday the fly they ate on Tuesday. Fishermen, ever inventive, constantly create new patterns to compensate. Despite this, some standard patterns have evolved. Tested by time, water, and fish, these are the flies that work more often than not. Most are trout flies because the majority of flyfishermen target trout. That’s why my top 20 list leans in that direction.

Are Hookless Trout Flies All The Rage?

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 14:46:30 -0400

A radically new idea in fishing is rare. So when Pat Moffitt, 56, a retired environmental services engineer, told me he was catching trout with hookless flies, I laughed. After a while, he convinced me that not only was he serious, but he could prove it worked. He and I went steelhead fishing last fall in some Lake Erie tributaries, where I tried his method and was amazed.

A Homestead for Steelhead: The Story of the Damdochax Lodge

Joe_Cermele — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:07:34 -0500

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

To what lengths -- or rather, what extremes -- would you travel to catch the trout of your life? For me, the journey led nearly to the end of the civilized world, over 8,000 miles from home, to the wildest reaches of Tierra del Fuego, the "Land of Fire," in southernmost Argentina. I had been told of a seldom fished and little understood river here, the Irigoyen (pronounced erie-GO-zhen), where massive sea-run brown trout swam through log-strewn runs and deep pools. The chance to hook a 20-pounder was enough incentive to fly from Denver to Atlanta, to Buenos Aires, to Ushuaia, the southernmost town in the world (total flying time over 16 hours). By the time we drove across this bottom spine of the Andes on our way to the river, I was a veritable trout zombie.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

Driving through the estancia, we came upon several herds of wild guanacos, llama-like animals that can run up to 35 miles an hour. We also saw condors circling the river overhead, and massive flocks of shore birds, like buff-neck ibis, and Magellan geese. Different penguin species and sea lions also migrate through the shore area. While there are plenty of foxes and beavers in the river corridor, there are no pumas here.

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fieldandstream-editor — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:00:00 -0500

This is a sea-run fish (you can tell by its size), but it has been in the river longer than most "fresh" trout, as it has started to assume some more muted brown hues, pronounced spots, and iridescent blue shades along its gill plates. After this fish spawns, it will once again run into the open ocean, where trout apparently range relatively close to shore, near the mouth of the river where they were born. The greatest predator to sea trout in the open ocean is the sea lion.